History
Before Current Era Not much is known about Infinitas from before the current civilization. Between 20,000 and 100,000 years ago, there was a powerful, advanced civilization inhabiting most of the planet. Then at the end of that period, something destroyed most of it, leaving only ruins, and the Zones. These were areas controlled by powerful entities called Minds, and riddled with undead. They left the remaining survivors in villages where they served as bait for the undead to draw them away from the Minds. The island itself was left barren after this event. Over the time, plant life returned and reseeded the island. It’s believed that occasionally people were migrated to the island in this time, however never in enough numbers to survive for very long. Then 89 years ago (as of 2015), enough people started migrating for a viable civilization to form. It’s unclear who exactly the first migrant in of the group was, but they met in the area which is now Arcford. Current Era 0-10 After Arrival The first year, the earliest arrivals came about in the southern regions. They mostly survived on foraging and hunting, though they quickly put together tools to clear areas for farmland. That summer they managed to plant some crops which the harvested in the fall, with the aid of basic druidic magic and hard work. By this point, there were a few hundred people, each settled at the mouths of rivers on the coast, in the areas that are now Marsilion and Arcford. People kept arriving by migrant. The first welcome center was set up in Arcford in year 2, to try and help the inflow of new arrivals. This however led to the explosive growth of the population. Travis Morel was the first of the people born, and while more people started being born as people started finding compatable matches, most of the population was still coming in by way of migrant. The early populace did not have much difficulty acquiring food, thanks to the wide biodiversity brought in by the migrants. Early technology was difficult to bootstrap, but the skilled work of engineers and artisans got basics going. It didn’t take very long for basic metallurgy to get rolling, mostly going off of migrated artifacts, and easily accessed surface deposits. Wood framed houses and sawmills were set up within the first couple years, so decent stone-and-wood houses were becoming commonplace by the 5th year. These were typically run from water wheels. In this time period, people spread out, mostly going to form settlements along the coast. The occasional abandoned ruin can be found from this period. Most of the major current cities were founded in this initial period. Farms managed to grow in size to support the growing population. By 9 years after the first arrivals, stratifications were already forming. 10-20 after arrival The population numbered a few thousand at this point. Humans showed a slight majority at this point, but there was still a great amount of diversity. Villages were being established around the coast, and early politics were starting to take hold. Given the low population and infrastructure, only basic forms of government took hold. In Arcford, they democratically elected a mayor to oversee the safety and development of the town. Elsewhere, people gathered around people that had established themselves and accepted them as their leader in a sort of light feudal system. Catsbad was already starting to build up as the place for magic users to go. Its leader was a dragon lord, Arethyl. Coldharbour was also becoming human-prominent under Lord Yves Duran. Marsilion and Porton were both working together to help each other in what was dubbed an “economic alliance” to help each other get set up. They each had a democratically elected mayor, but the real power was with the people who had set up guilds and companies. Up in the mountains, a few isolated communities had sprung up. A company of dwarves that had migrated in began setting up the southern stronghold; they’re now the royalty there. Infrastructure continued to develop at a slow pace. The handful of robotic entities that got migrated in had to live off a few shared generators being spun by waterwheels. Cobblestone roads began to be seen in the larger towns, but outside of them it was still pretty much exclusively dirt roads. Wind-driven water pumps, wells, and water rain catchers were the main forms of collecting water. Most home heating was from wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. With the large forest areas needing to be cleared for farmland, wood and lumber, both for burning and for building, was plentiful. Some simple quarries were built for the purpose of getting structural stone, though without large transit ability, the quarries mostly serviced local areas. Some of the oldest remaining houses on Infinitas date back to this time, stone houses built heavily to last. A couple of powerful families tried to build up castles, but that only really took hold in the north, where most of those castles still stand today. In Porton, the town hall and government buildings are located in a castle that was built there in the years 20-24. Years 20-30 The population continued its steady growth. The larger cities started creeping into the 4 digits territory, and smaller towns also started cropping up. The town of Glass Scale was established in this time, when a magical Sun Stone got migrated in, and was set up to provide cold blooded people a place to live without fear of freezing to death from the winter. In the year 26, a powerful necromancer enacted a plan to try and take over the island. This was the first major threat the people of the island faced, and for the first time, they had to put together an army to fight against this threat. A young infborn from Coldharbour, Travis Morel, came to lead the troops against the necromancer, ending his threat. He was imprisoned near Catsbad in what is now the Hanlaw Prison (since necromancers are notoriously hard to kill permanently). The raising of this army did cause a shift in the balances of power. Before now there wasn’t really any especially centralized form of power. But after this, the troops returned home, and looked for a leader to gather behind. The necromancer was situated in the woods of the north, so many of the people up there were fighting to defend their families, and they sought their posts out of duty. But many of the soldiers coming from the south were fighting for money or other such reasons. This began leading to a divide, where southerners tended to work for whichever lord or CEO had the most money to offer them, while the Northerners were driven by duty and responsibility. Year 30-40 With the rise of the armies, the people in power started getting more ambitious, and tried to more properly organize themselves. Lords tried to extend their reach, offering protection and trade to village, in return for taxes and goods. Crude quasi-democratic feudal city states formed, with most of the villages and towns aligning themselves with 4 groups: The Hold of Korren, the Principality of Coldharbour, The state of Fereaux, and the Southern League. The politics associated with these city states were quite convoluted, to say the least. Thousands of individuals from all kinds of political backgrounds led to this. Each power had their own ambitions and their own resources to make them realized. Allegiances were formed over the last decade, and tensions formed. This all came to a head when the city of Whatnow (Back then it was called Denstelpol) staged a coup and installed a human-centric government, joining the principality of Coldharbour. Things rapidly deteriorated, with accusations being flung left and right, leading to the First Infinitas War where the four powers slugged it out. This war lasted from December of 39 to March of 42. Eventually the Four Powers resources were stretched too thin, so they went back to lick their wounds. Year 40-50 The First Infinitas War significantly stagnated the development of infrastructure on the island, and led to the destruction of quite a bit more existing stuff. Denstelpol was quite heavily damaged by it. In the rebuilding period, it came to be known as Whatnow. Growing discontent with the Four Powers mounted in response to the first Infinitas War and what many felt to be the poor handling of the reconstruction period. In Fereaux, many of the resources people had been using to build their companies and their cities had been appropriated. In Coldharbour, the commander of the forces, Travis Morel, was discontent with the way the present nobility had bickered and argued and divided his forces, turning what could’ve been sweeping victories into an inconclusive mess. In the Hold of Korren, many people with magical power were lesser in power to the leader, the dragon Arethyl. Over the course of a number of secret meetings, the discontented formed a conspiracy and in the year 48, they rapidly deposed many of the current powers in the Succession War. This was a quick and bloody 4 month long campaign, but it resulted in the destruction of the 4 great powers. The Principality of Coldharbour got decisively collapsed by the efforts of Travis Morel, and was reformed into the Fighters. The Hold of Korren saw the magic users rise up against Arethyl, who was exiled to an island to the north, and led to the creation of the Mages. Fereaux collapsed, and lost Whatnow to the North, while the Southern League collapsed entirely. What was left was the Free City of Arcford, while Porton and Marsilion fell to the influence of the new House of Politiker lords. Years 50-70 The next two decades led to a period of relative peace, aided by their distance, and a sense of some camaraderie left over from their conspiracy. The houses were content to be left up to their own devices. There was significant development over this period of time, however most of it unfortunately went to serve the people in power. The few steel-and-glass buildings that exist in Marsilion, for example, were built in this time period to host the Trade Union’s largest companies. However, over time, the trust that had led to their conspiracy diminished, and the distance came to mean less with the construction of the cobblestone roads that connected the cities for trade, as well as the construction of some fiber-optic lines between Arcford, Porton, and Marsilion. Each faction had their own interests in mind, and worryingly began seeing others as competitors. They began to prepare themselves, each worried that the other would backstab one another first. Years 80 to present With the building tensions between the Great Houses, the entire island became a powder keg, ready to ignite. And the spark that set it off was a grand spark indeed. The Sola incident in September of 84 was a nuclear explosion that obliterated a small island outside of Marsilion. The incident sent things spiraling out of control, as each of the houses mobilized themselves for war. The Second Infinitas War was a much bloodier conflict than the last, as each side had spent a considerably larger amount of time preparing for it. The War was declared over in Feburary of 86. The Fighters had held Arcford for a period of time, but the city was liberated by the new Democratic Government of Marsilion and Porton. The trade union had been done in by the poor loyalty of its soldiers and the efforts of Sabre, a resistance group under Daniel Muir. Fighting in the north continued for some time, and Marsilion was sacked at one point afterwards, though the defenders rallied and drove off the Northern invaders. For many, the scars of the war are still fresh. Not 6 months after the conclusion of hostilities, a massive spacecraft was migrated in, and it crashed into the lake outside of Marsilion. When team went in to investigate, they inadvertently activate the spacecraft, and it took and flew through the fog, and returned after seeing the mainland. This was a completely unprecedented event in the island’s history, as no expedition had ever pierced the fog and successfully returned. The governments of Marsilion, Arcford, and Porton worked together, creating a formal organization known as The Expedition, and using parts from the spaceship to construct the Adrastea, an airship using all the tricks up their sleeves to pierce the fog and see what lies on the other side. Construction of the airship took nearly a year, plagued by a lack of infrastructure and technical problems, and even a sabotage event. But when the time came, the Adrastea pushed through the fog and moved onwards to the Mainland, founding Port Harbinger. This was not without incidents though. In mid-88, a powerful psychic presence manifested itself into the fort at (coordinates), and a local nest of Arachnids began to go to attack it. It turns out the presence was none other than one of the Minds of the mainland, coming for reasons unknown. When the arachnids attacked, it created a zone around it on the island. The Islanders were desperate to keep this from being able to spread and lead to conditions like those on the mainland, so with great haste, constructed a massive containment array to keep the zone from releasing dangers to the island. In September of that year, during a blow-out event, the array was energized to try and burn out the infection of undead within the zone. This inadvertently caused the undead to have to create a massive being known as Ahtu. This being was strong enough that it drew the ire of a mysterious entity called “The Nagarroth.” This is a being that consumes gods, and when Ahtu manifested, Nagarroth came and devoured it, the zone, and all the energy stored in the array.